Container



March 25, 1969 v s. D. COLLIE 3,434,644

' CONTAINER Filed Sept. 1, 1966' M VE/VTOR S. D. COLLIE United States Patent 3,434,644 CONTAINER Stafford D. Collie, Kansas City, Mo., assignor to Phillips Petroleum Company, a corporation of Delaware Filed Sept. 1, 1966, Ser. No. 576,755 Int. Cl. B65d 3/10, /00, 13/00 US. Cl. 229-5.6 2 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This invention relates to a container formed by heat sealing two sections together. In one aspect, a container comprises top and bottom sections of heat scalable material, each section being separately nestable and one section having a circumferential groove to receive the side Wall edge of the second section, the two sections being heat sealed together. In another aspect, a container is formed from two separately nestable sections, the side wall of one section terminating in an S-shaped portion forming an outer circumferential groove adapted to receive the side wall edge of the second section.

In numerous applications, containers for fluids or solids are fabricated in final form and shipped in that condition to a filling station Where the containers are filled and closed. For example, in the dairy industry, milk bottles are fabricated at one location and are usually shipped to a filling and distribution depot where the containers are filled and closed.

I have found that the space requirements for shipping facilities to accommodate the transport of such containers can be markedly reduced by fabricating the containers in two separately nestable sections which can be shipped and stored in nested arrangement. The sections can be assembled as required, thereby minimizing shipping and storage space needs.

It is, therefore, one object of this invention to provide a container formed from two separately nestable sections which can be shipped and stored in nested arrangement and assembled as required. It is another object of this invention to provide two separately nestable container sections of heat scalable material designed to be heat sealed to form a finished container.

Other aspects, objects and advantages of this invention will be apparent from the disclosure, the drawings and appended claims.

The container of this invention will be most readily understood by reference to the drawings which are intended only to be illustrative of one embodiment of this invention.

FIGURE 1 is an isometric view of the assembled container. FIGURE 2 is a crosssection of the container of FIGURE 1. FIGURE 3 shows several nested container top sections. FIGURE 4 is a schematic illustration of the container assembly.

3,434,644 Patented Mar. 25, 1969 I CC FIGURE 1 shows an assembled container having tapered bottom section 1 and tapered top sections 3. The neck of the container 10 is tapered to allow nesting of the top section when separate. The container is further provided with removable closure means 9 which can be a conventional snap-on or frictionally engaged cap for closing opening 11 which is provided for filling the container or removing the contents therefrom. In an alternate procedure, the container can be filled before assembly thereby allowing closure means 9 to be sealed to top section 3 during the fabrication of the separate sections or for the closure means 9 to be an integrally formed portion of section 3, thereby simplifying the operations involved in assembling the container after it has been filled.

FIGURE 2 is a cross sectional view of the container of FIGURE 1 illustrating the S-shaped portion 4 of the top section side wall which provides a downwardly facing U- shaped outer portion 5 for receiving the upper edge of the lower section side wall 1. In addition to downwardly facing groove 5, the S-shaped portion provides an upwardly facing depression 6 spaced radially inwardly of groove 5. Depression 6 is provided for locating a heat scaling back up mandrel or forming mandrel 7 as illustrated in FIG- URE 4 behind the inner wall of downwardly facing groove 5 for providing lateral support during sealing operation.

In the assembly of the article as illustrated in FIGURE 4, top section 3 is positioned on bottom section 1 so that downwardly facing groove 5 receives the upper edge of the lower section side wall. A backup mandrel 7 is then positioned so that its lower extremities contact the outer wall of groove 6 to provide lateral support for the U shaped portion 4 during the sealing operation. Laterally movable heat sealing bars 8 are located on the several sides of the container and are operated simultaneously to converge on the outer edge of downwardly facing groove 5, forcing the outer and inner walls of groove 5 into intimate contact with the upper edge of the lower section side wall and heat sealing the same.

The two sections of the container can be fabricated from any heat scalable material such as thermoplastic, plastic-coated paper, or wax-coated paper. In the presently preferred embodiment of this invention, top section 3 is fabricated from thermoplastic such as polyethylene, polypropylene, or other homopolymers and copolymers of l-olefins and the bottom section 1 is fabricated from paper coated plastics such as polyethylene.

FIGURE 3 illustrates several top sections 3 arranged in nested relationship for shipping or storage. The bottom sections of the container can be similarly nested.

Numerous variations and modifications of the concept of this invention will be apparent to one skilled in the art in view of the foregoing disclosure, the drawings and appended claims to this invention, the essence of which is that there is provided a container comprising two separately nestable sections, the side wall of one section terminating in an S-shaped portion thereby providing an outer circumferential groove to receive the edge of the second section side wall and to be heat sealed and crimped thereto to assemble the container.

I claim:

1. A container comprising top and bottom sections of heat scalable material, said heat scalable material in the top section comprising homopolymers and copolymers of l-olefins and in the bottom section comprising plasticcoated paper, said sections being axially tapered to allow nesting when separate, one of said sections having an outwardly extending wall terminating in an S-shaped portion thereby providing an outer circumferential groove adapted to receive the edge of the second section of said side wall, said groove being crimped over said edge and into intimate contact therewith, said groove and said edge being heat sealed together to form said container; said top section having an orifice therein to allow passage of the contents of said container, said orifice having closing means.

2. The container of claim 1 where said top section cornprises polyethylene and said bottom section comprises polyethylene coated paper.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 7/1955 Strahm 220-67 7/1956 Prahl 220-67 X 11/1937 Ferngren.

4/ 1956 Sayre. 2/1957 McNamara 206-151 7/1959 Shakrnan. 5/1967 Palmer 229-55 U.S. Cl. X.R. 

